What is reading fluency?

Why is fluency important?

Reading
Fluency

What instruction helps students

develop fluency?
How can we adapt instruction for
students with special needs?
How can we monitor students
progress in fluency?

2002 UT System/TEA

Effective Fluency Instruction and Progress Monitoring

Fluency: reading quickly, accurately,

and with expression
Combines rate and accuracy
Requires automaticity

Fluency

Includes reading with prosody

Rate

Accuracy
Fluency

Comprehension

2002 UT System/TEA

Effective Fluency Instruction and Progress Monitoring

Automaticity:
Is quick, accurate recognition of
letters and words

Automaticity

Frees cognitive resources to

process meaning
Is achieved through corrected
practice

2002 UT System/TEA

Effective Fluency Instruction and Progress Monitoring

What does fluent reading

sound like?

Fluent
Reading . . .

2002 UT System/TEA

Fluent reading flows. It

sounds smooth, with
natural pauses.

Effective Fluency Instruction and Progress Monitoring

 Fluency provides a bridge

between word recognition and
comprehension.

Why Is
Reading
Fluency
Important?

National Institute for Literacy (NIFL),

2001, p. 22

Fluent readers are able to focus

their attention on understanding
text.
Because non-fluent readers
focus much of their attention on
figuring out words, they have
less attention to devote to
comprehension.

2002 UT System/TEA

Effective Fluency Instruction and Progress Monitoring

What
Students
Need to
Learn

How We
Teach It

2002 UT System/TEA

How to decode words (in isolation and in

connected text)

How to automatically recognize words

(accurately and quickly with little attention
or effort)

How to increase speed (or rate) of reading

while maintaining accuracy

Provide opportunities for guided oral

repeated reading that includes support and
feedback from teachers, peers, and/or
parents

Match reading texts and instruction to

individual students

Apply systematic classroom-based

instructional assessment to monitor
student progress in both rate and accuracy
Effective Fluency Instruction and Progress Monitoring

Research
Evidence

Repeated reading procedures that

offer guidance and feedback are
effective for improving word
recognition, fluency,
comprehension, and overall
reading achievement through
Grade 5.
National Reading Panel, 2000

Students with low fluency

benefit from repeated reading
with a model and reading text
that is chunked in words or
phrases.

2002 UT System/TEA

Effective Fluency Instruction and Progress Monitoring

Typical first graders read 60 wpm.

Typical second graders read 70 wpm.
Typical third graders read 80 wpm.

Fluency and
the TEKS
(TEKS 1.9,
2.6, 3.6)

INDEPENDENT-LEVEL
1 in 20 words is
difficult

95%100%
accuracy

INSTRUCTIONAL-LEVEL
1 in 10 words is
difficult

90%94%
accuracy

FRUSTRATIONAL-LEVEL
Difficulty with >1 in 10
words

2002 UT System/TEA

< 90%
accuracy

Effective Fluency Instruction and Progress Monitoring

 Measure students fluency

Steps to
Providing
Fluency
Instruction

Set fluency goals for individual

students
Select appropriate texts for
fluency-building instruction
Model fluent reading
Provide repeated reading
opportunities with corrected
feedback
Monitor student progress

2002 UT System/TEA

Effective Fluency Instruction and Progress Monitoring

Measuring
Students
Fluency

Assess fluency regularly and

systematically
Use formal or informal measures
Establish baseline data
Monitor progress

2002 UT System/TEA

Effective Fluency Instruction and Progress Monitoring

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One-Minute Reading

Calculating
Reading
Fluency

Total
Number
of
Words
Read

Number
of
Errors

Words
Correct
Per
Minute
(wpm)

Example:
If a student reads 66 words and
has 8 errors, the student reads 58
words correct per minute.
Always encourage students to do
their best reading.

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Effective Fluency Instruction and Progress Monitoring

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Practice

Mrs. Mooney was a butchers daughter. She was

a woman who was quite able to keep things to herself:
a determined woman. She had married her fathers
foreman and opened a butchers shop near Spring
Gardens. But as soon as his father-in-law was dead
Mr. Mooney began to go to the devil. He drank,
plundered the till, ran headlong into debt. It was no
use making him take the pledge: he was sure to
break out again a few days after. By fighting his
wife in the presence of customers and by buying
bad meat he ruined his business.

8
19
27
35
44
54
64
74
84
93
99

One night he went for his wife with the cleaver

and she had to sleep in a neighbors house. After
that they lived apart. She went to the priest and
got a separation from him with care of the children.
She would give him neither money or food nor
house-room; and so he was obliged to enlist himself
as a sheriffs man.

109
119
129
139
148
157
161

Joyce, J. (1996). The boarding house. In Dubliners (pp. 61-69). New York: Penguin Books.

2002 UT System/TEA

Effective Fluency Instruction and Progress Monitoring

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Establishing baseline fluency

scores helps determine students
fluency goals.

Setting
Fluency
Goals

2002 UT System/TEA

Recommended weekly
improvement = 1.5 to 2.0 wpm

Determine the number of

words the student needs to
improve each week to reach
an end-of-year goal.

Set a goal for the student to

reach by the middle of the
year.

Effective Fluency Instruction and Progress Monitoring

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Guidelines
for
Developing
Fluency

Begin when students

demonstrate requisite skills
Select appropriate texts
Model fluent reading
Provide practice opportunities

2002 UT System/TEA

Effective Fluency Instruction and Progress Monitoring

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Fluency-Related Instructional Decisions

Student Data Shows

Instructional Decision

Makes steady progress

but does not meet goals

Continue in same level of

text

Meets goals on first

reading

Move to higher level of text

or raise the fluency goal

Has difficulty achieving

goals

Move to lower or easier

level of text or lower the
fluency goal

2002 UT System/TEA

Effective Fluency Instruction and Progress Monitoring

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15

To determine a students reading

level for a specific text, calculate:

Correct number of words read

A Closer Look
at Reading
Levels

Total number of words read

Percent accuracy

Ex: 48 50 = (.96) 96%

(Independent level)
2002 UT System/TEA

Effective Fluency Instruction and Progress Monitoring

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Repeated Reading

Partner Reading

Pair students to practice

rereading text

Computer-Based/
Tape-Assisted
Reading

Students listen, read along, or record

their own reading, point to text,
subvocalize words, and reread texts
independently

Readers Theatre

Small groups rehearse and read a play

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Effective Fluency Instruction and Progress Monitoring

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Teach ways to provide feedback:

Model

Providing
Feedback

2002 UT System/TEA

Provide guided practice

Monitor students

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Partner
Reading . . .

2002 UT System/TEA

Involves pairing students

to practice rereading text

Increases the amount of

time students are reading
and can provide a model
of fluent reading

Effective Fluency Instruction and Progress Monitoring

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Adapt partner reading for

struggling readers:
Modify setting

Partner
Reading
Adaptations

Adapt instructional content

Modify delivery of instruction
Consider requisite abilities
Adapt material or use assistive
technology
Consider strategies or
interventions

2002 UT System/TEA

Effective Fluency Instruction and Progress Monitoring

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Computer-Based/TapeAssisted Reading

RepeatedReading
Practices

Models the proper phrasing and

speed of fluent reading

Readers Theatre
Involves small groups of students
rehearsing and reading a play

2002 UT System/TEA

Effective Fluency Instruction and Progress Monitoring

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Choral reading

More
FluencyBuilding
Practices

2002 UT System/TEA

Actively involves students as they

read in unison

Chunking
Involves reading phrases,
clauses, and
sentences by parsing, or
dividing text into chunks

Effective Fluency Instruction and Progress Monitoring

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Fluency practice for English

Consider
Diversity:
English
Language
Learners

language learners involves:

Listening to models
Repeated readings
Choral reading
Partner reading

2002 UT System/TEA

Effective Fluency Instruction and Progress Monitoring

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Students with disabilities

usually benefit from:

Students with
Special Needs

Repeated reading practice,

especially in expository or
informational texts
More time on task
Paired reading and rereading
Additional feedback and
progress monitoring

2002 UT System/TEA

Effective Fluency Instruction and Progress Monitoring

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Students:

Monitoring
Fluency
Progress

Independently read
unpracticed text to the teacher
and graph their wpm
Practice rereading the same
text several times
Independently read the text
again to the teacher
Graph score in a different color

2002 UT System/TEA

Effective Fluency Instruction and Progress Monitoring

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When
Students
Need Fluency
Interventions

identify fluency-related skills to

target in instruction
set individual goals
provide intensive instruction with
lots of practice
monitor progress

2002 UT System/TEA

Effective Fluency Instruction and Progress Monitoring

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Fluency is increased when

students:

Remember . . .

Develop instant, efficient word

recognition (automaticity)
Practice repeated reading of
texts
Receive feedback and guidance
from others

2002 UT System/TEA

Effective Fluency Instruction and Progress Monitoring

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